Just two days into his new job running the state Department of Transportation, Phil Eng left no uncertainty on an issue that landed his predecessor in hot water.
Former Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt earned a swift reprimand from Gov. Maura Healey last year when, in a candid conversation with an advocacy group, she suggested a new toll on drivers entering Massachusetts from neighboring states as a way to raise transportation funding.
“The Secretary’s comments do not represent the views of this administration, and to be clear, I am not proposing tolls at any border,” Healey, a first-term Democrat, said soon after. Then New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, also denounced the idea.
On Thursday, Healey announced that Tibbits-Nutt would be leaving her post. She tapped Eng, the MBTA general manager, to take over MassDOT for now while he also continues in his prior role.
On Friday, during his monthly interview on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio,” Eng was asked whether he would consider installing toll booths on the New Hampshire border.
“Tolls are not my priority right now,” he said. “My priority is to actually start to deliver for the public. There’s a lot of things that the public has been waiting for, both on the MassDOT side and on the MBTA side. We have tremendous support with transportation funding, including $8 billion that the governor and the legislature provided to us. There’s enough for me to keep doing right now that I’m not even really focused on tolls.”
Eng also fielded a question from GBH co-host Jim Braude on whether New York City, where Eng was formerly a top transportation official, had seen success with congestion pricing, a system in which drivers are charged to enter an especially congested section of Manhattan.
“I’m hearing positive results as far as traffic has eased in Manhattan. Hearing that the walkability, the ability to have businesses have better access because the streets are not clogged,” Eng said. “I don’t know all the details of how it’s actually functioning right now. But what we’ll say is that you need a mass transportation system to support it. You cannot just expect people to not use their cars if you don’t have a sound mass transportation system.”
Braude wondered: Would it be worth piloting a similar system in Boston as a way to solve its own congestion headaches?
“I think that’s a topic for a longer discussion,” Eng said.
He applauded the money legislators earlier this year awarded the T and other transportation agencies in a new funding package.
“The investments that are being made in the T give us several years to be able to build on the successes we’ve had,” Eng said.
“Let us continue to do that,” he said, before turning to an “open dialogue” with the public on a potential congestion pricing program.